America: On the Brink of Civil War?

America is a pressure cooker ready to explode. Tempers are flaring. Differences are amplified. Conflicts abound.

Left and right are at each others’ throats. They just don’t see things the same way, and don’t look like they care to listen to anything the other says any more.

Where will it all end? Who knows, but I don’t think getting there will be an easy ride.

At its core is a concerted effort to reshape our country in some unstated new image (Venezuela? China?) by a consortium of various elements of the political, institutional and radical left. Just as entrenched are those who try to preserve our heritage at the risk of appearing insensitive to the plight of those who feel the weight of systemic injustices.

Worse, old racial wounds are surfacing to interact with harsh and sometimes excessive police tactics to fuel a resentment and cry for justice that is being answered far too slowly.

All sides bear such hatred for their counterparts that talking is impossible and compromise out of the question.

Yet, it seems to me that both sides are being played the fools by those who really don’t care how it turns out as long as they get what they want — control — and the spoils it allows them to plunder along the way.

The Spoils of War

Who might benefit in such way?

An overzealous security apparatus, including both military and the alphabet agencies, certainly would. So would elements of the State Department who direct policy and control relations abroad. We can’t rule out rogue elements in any of them.

Neither can we overlook those who control the money side of things where fortunes are made and lost, sometime legally, sometimes even out in the open.

Of course, there are those who stand to benefit financially from government policy and public opinion, like the body scanner industry conveniently benefiting from the Mandalay Bay Massacre. Fortunes can be made by those who know how to play the game.

Let’s not forget the many others who look to influence public policy or create circumstances from which they can profit, even if it means riling up the masses in the process. And most of them are not shy about using their money to gain favor and influence policy for political candidates at all levels.

Last but not least are the politicians and political parties that kowtow to rich donors while seeking to exploit the fears and desires of a populace that grows increasing disconnected from the government and system under which they live. So much so, in fact, that some are even willing to blow it all up and start over at the risk of losing the very freedoms that we have now.

These are ones we the people must stand against. For they mock our sovereignty while manipulating us into giving them more and more power over us, all the while ratcheting up the conflicts that keep us apart.

Strange Bedfellows

Bernie Sanders and the progressive wing of the Democrats had the right idea about the elites. So did Trump and the MAGA movement. They just disagreed on how to go about regaining control by the people, and what to do once they did.

Now, these aligned sides are being pitted against each other in a war that is being fought by extremes even beyond theirs, and trying to drag all the rest of us into it as well. They’re trying to make it a clash of cultures, when in fact we know that in the end, the American culture will continue to evolve — and hopefully become more just, more equal, and more free.

But I don’t have hope these combatants will ever see it that way and seek to live together in peace. Their energies of conflict — the beliefs and desires, fears and emotions — have to expend themselves somehow. Right now they’re all being directed at each other, escalating their battle ever more with each passing day.

So no, I don’t think this will blow over anytime soon. In fact, it looks like it will be a fight to the death for the future of our civilization. The worst part is, it doesn’t need to be.

Lincoln was right. A house divided cannot stand.

I pray that we find a way to heal our divisions and bring peace to the land.